It is an unusual situation for a lighting designer to be briefed to ‘on no account light the leading performer'. However this is exactly the situation that Andrew Bridge found himself in when lighting Sinatra at the London Palladium this year. Directed by David Leveaux, Sinatra opened in March and is realised via a hybrid of technology and live action. The production mixes video footage of ol' blue eyes himself with a live band (music arranged by Gareth Valentine), accompanied by live backing singers and dancers (choreographed by Stephen Mear).

Bridge's brief was to create atmosphere and dimension for the 24 strong band and the live dancers - without upstaging Sinatra. However it was not easy to light the live performers when the leading man appears as a video image anything up to eight meters tall! Sinatra manifests on nine separate screens of varying sizes, which can truck up, down and across the stage.  Bridge has to ensure that these remain untouched by direct light at all times.

In addition to this Bridge uses six VL5 wash luminaires, 84 Wybron Coloram II colour scrollers, five DHA eight-lamp digital light curtains, 230 ETC Source Four profiles and pars plus 100 other assorted conventional luminaires, saying: "PRG Europe always gives me huge support where I need it most - in the quality and reliability of the equipment and its technical back up."

Peter Marshall, Project Director at PRG Europe, takes up the story: "It was quite a tight schedule from the initial bid process, just before Christmas, to getting the green light on the project from production manager Richard Bullimore. There was little time to purchase specialist equipment such as the latest VL3500Q spots, schedule the equipment and organise the preparation for load-in mid-January. I must say though that looking back at the project it was one of the quietist fit-ups and production periods I can remember. I think we only swapped out two or three moving lights over the entire production and that's a credit to our automated luminaire prep department. When you have a vast inventory and a good team behind you it's relatively straightforward to react to short notice and tight deadlines. It was also great to be working again with Andy Bridge and his team of experts - Alistair Grant as assistant LD, Stuart Porter programming the movers on a Wholehog 2 and production electrician Fraser Hall."

During the early stages of planning the British incarnation of Sinatra (it was first performed two to three years ago at New York's Radio City Music Hall), Bullimore suggested to the producers that Bridge would be an ideal candidate to light the show. He has vast experience in both theatre and industrial events and has worked with screen technology extensively at Imagination.

As rehearsals unfolded Bridge was confronted with a variety of challenges, as he explains: "Due to the nature of the show a fair amount of the live action happens down stage of the iron curtain. I only had the advance bar and a small bar FOH to light this area. There is also a stage wide BP screen used for some of the projection numbers - this completely cuts off my back light bar. I solved this by positioning light curtains on the BP bar itself."

Another difficulty was being able to see the VL3500 shuttering on stage from the programming position. Bridge explains: "If I had my way I would have incorporated a camera into each light, so that I could see what it was seeing - the beam shape and more importantly what it might be hitting. Instead I fixed video cameras to each pipe end - these are now affectionately known as ‘AndyCams'."

Bridge continues: "They were incredibly useful. With so many functions to programme there is often not enough time to get accurate shuttering. Normally as time slips away your intended sharp square is forced into submission and ends up as a soft circle!"

Bridge has lit Act One in black and white with hints of sepia to emphasise the 1917 - 1960 setting, whereas Act Two introduces colour to illustrate the post-1960 setting. The show necessitates heavy back- and side-light - eight booms per side. Followspots are used sparingly to emphasise and highlight the live performers, whilst avoiding the upstaging of Sinatra.

In addition to Bridge and his team, other collaborators included the London Palladium crew of David Draude, Chief LX and John Shurety and Lindsey Doherty, operators on the Strand 530 board for all the conventional lights. According to Bridge: "The team on Sinatra was one of the nicest in the West End. They have looked after my show beautifully."